Creation Science Rebuttals

Answers in Genesis Daily
Feature

The
Self-Righteousness of Young Earth Ministries (The Church's Band-Aid
Solution)

6 September 2003

I recently read a
letter on the Answers in Genesis website, in which
Ken Ham talks about
the present day church, and the efforts of the church to embrace new
technologies to advance the Gospel. In short, he claims that these
high-tech efforts amount to nothing more than a “band-aid,” meant to fix an
ailing church.

It is true that
today’s church is ailing. One only needs to look at how the church is
losing its influence in American society, from the removal of the Ten
Commandments in public places, to the banning of prayer during school
functions, to the rampant, misleading lawsuits filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union. Everywhere you look, religious freedom is under attack,
and the church is reeling to try and breach this ever-widening gap.

To what does Ken attribute
this ailment within the church? He blames the church itself….“the
church has compromised with millions of years/evolutionary ideas, which over
generations have undermined the authority of the Word of God.”

I must have been sleeping
when the courts outlawed prayer in schools back in the sixties, because I
missed the part of the lawsuit that said, “We can’t pray because of
evolution.” And I must have dozed off when CNN covered the recent removal
of the Ten Commandments monument from the Supreme Court building in Alabama,
because I don’t recall the lawyers saying the Commandments must go because
we know the earth is millions of years old.

He goes on to explain that
this compromise has led to society rejecting the Bible as authoritative, and
that the morality codes of the Bible, such as marriage, are no longer
accepted, all supposedly because of evolution or old earth beliefs. As far
as I know, none of the states which have approved same-sex marriages have
done so on the basis of evolution.

Stop Spreading
Mis-Truths

Many old earth Christians are
here to say “Not so fast, Mr. Ham.” We are here to proclaim that the Bible
is the inerrant Word of God, and our morality has not slipped one bit due to
evolutionary, old-earth beliefs. If you want to blame someone for the
condition of American society, don’t point fingers at the church! It is the
members of the church that were standing on the footsteps of the Alabama
Supreme Court recently, protesting the monument’s removal. Are they to
blame for America’s condition? No.

I’m sure Mr. Ham would point
to the many liberal churches that don’t believe in his kind of religion,
which can best be characterized as fundamentalist Baptist. As a person who
has attended many independent, fundamental Baptist churches (I was married
in one, and have attended many over the years), I am here to proclaim that
you can be fundamental, and believe in an old-earth. Aside from my
old earth belief, everything else about my faith can be summed up as
“fundamentalist.” I find it strange that “I” am to blame
for the degrading social condition of America.

Who to Blame?

Who does the Bible say to
blame when society does not follow the Word of God? Who do you think is
behind the breakdown of the church’s influence in America? One only need
look in the direction of God’s enemy, Satan. The many lawyers who are
responsible for a major part of our legal system’s denial of Christianity
are unwitting pawns of the devil himself. The atheists who bring these
frivolous lawsuits are, despite their denial of any higher power, merely
puppets for the evil one. Christ said in Matthew 12:30, “He that is not
with Me is against Me…” They are not working for
Christ, therefore they are against Him, whether they realize it or not.

Solution

Yes, we have liberal churches
that don’t recognize the inerrant Word of God. Churches are not without
their faults. However, this is especially true of the independent,
fundamentalist Baptist churches, and any others that like to point fingers
at the liberal churches, and blame them for America’s social decline. It’s
time that ALL of America’s churches recognize their self-righteousness,
which is especially rampant in fundamentalist circles. If they spent less
time pointing fingers, and more time working together with others, we may
get somewhere! As an old-earth believer, I’m more than happy to work
alongside young-earth believers in winning souls for Christ…too bad it’s not
the other way around.

I realize that in saying
this, many of you are saying that I am self-righteous. I admit it…after
all, I think I’m 100 percent correct in stating
the earth is 4.5 billion years old. However, I’m willing to “meet in the
middle” with the young-earth believers. They can continue to believe in a
young earth…all they would have to do is concede that there is no problem
with being an old earth believer and believing in an inerrant Word of God.

Conclusion

There is no problem with
believing in an old earth, and believing in an inerrant Word of God (I’ve
been doing it for over 20 years). For many years, young earth creation
science ministries
have made it their business (a profitable one, at that) to stamp old-earth
believers into the ground. It’s about time young-earth
Christians wake up, and start working with us, and not against
us…together, we can reach many for Christ.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision
for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to
what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the
inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while
still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we
have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in
this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If
you are a young earth creationism believer,
click here.